beccarae

Day 45 Kennedy Meadows Zero

Had a kick ass day at KM with the homies. Woke up to a beautiful sunrise outside of Grumpy’s and headed there to wait til they opened. It was so nice knowing we were going to hangout there for a couple of zeroes. Grumpy’s opened and we all piled in to get in line for the hikers breakfast with unlimited pancakes. It was delicious with this huge ass pancake that I could not finish. My favorite part was the diner style coffee that’s slightly burnt with unlimited refills. Loved it. Overall great day of resupplying and getting ready for the Sierra. Fly even gave me a shakedown which was super helpful. He helped me pick out about 3 pounds of stuff to send home. Had some drinks with folks and saw some familiar faces walk into Grumpy’s that I haven’t seen in a while. Overall great day.

Day 44 687 to Kennedy Meadows

Made it to Kennedy Meadows! Craziness! So stoked to finally be here. This whole thing feels like a dream honestly. Stoked to have the desert behind me. So over it. And I never want to do that again. Super proud of myself tho, but holy shit nope. I woke up pretty excited and before everyone this morning. Packed up my shit and said bye to the desert. I made it almost to the meetings spot and the crew started to catch up. We decided the night prior to meet at mile 698 to get to 700 together. And we did it! Then we all hiked into Kennedy Meadows together. So wonderful. Just happy everyone was down and wanted to do it together. We made it to the general store and had our lunch and drank our drinks. So good. Ran into Tiger Blood and caught up with her for a bit which was nice. Then just chilled with the crew and pet all the animals that were around, which were a shit ton. I even saw the old crew Stretcgh, Anna, and Rocky for a brief sec which was sweet. And ofcourse they still decided not to take a zero. It’s incredible. Love then but happy with my decision. Made it to Grumpy’s at the end of the day and had a massive dinner and a couple of margaritas which really hit the spot. Now we are all camped here ready to chill for the next couple of days. Let’s get it!

Day 41 612 to 645

Day 40 587 to 612

Day 39 Tehachapi to mile 587

Woke up at 4am this morning to get a hitch back into trail before the beat kicked in. Wasn’t super great getting up that early, but was able to get a lot of miles before it got really hot which was nice. Orange Slice, Tater and I set off. The trail angel picked us up and drove us to the trail head. It was a bit of a slog this morning with a heavy water carry and 6 days worth of food to get to Kennedy Meadows. I am so ready to be there! Took a rest at the top with orange slice. We saw a dude off the trail a bit napping and realized it was survivor so he came to over to hang. We chatted for a bit and then hiked to the water source when the heat really started to kick in. We laid there with tater and another big group for a few hours. Then fly and manfunk showed up. And also hazmat. It was a nice little chill spot. We watered up for the next dry stretch and hit the trail. We all met four miles later and set up camp. It’s a beautiful, cozy little site. I’m already looking ahead at tomorrow’s campsite and apparently you can see Whitney! So stoked to get there and see that. I may cry. I really like the folks in this group so we shall see what happens! It’s been fun hopping around a bit. I definitely want to hike with a crew through the Sierra just for safety reasons and also to have a kick ass time. Until then. Goodnight!

Day 37 Tylerhorse Canyon to Tehachapi

Woke up with no wind. It was awesome. Packed up camp and left around 6 to book it to Tehachapi. I kept debating on where I’d get off at because there are two different exits for Tehachapi. The morning was pretty chill and started to heat up. I came upon the first water source where a red umbrella magically appeared out of nowhere. Koolaid and orange slice were already chilling. I sat next to koolaid and he offered me some of his red apple. I took a few delicious bites while the rest of their crew showed up. We hung out and chatted about getting to Tehachapi. They all were getting off at the first exit so that’s what made up my mind. We snacked and headed off. A few miles later, a helicopter started flying all around us. I couldn’t tell if they were patrolling or what. Then i guess it spotted it’s target which was Lindy, a PCT hiker who was suffering from heat exhaustion. I saw her being airlifted up into the helicopter. It was crazy! She was hidden in a couloir so I ran just in time to see it all happen. I heard she’s okay and already wanting to get back out on trail. After that excitement, we hoofed it to Tehachapi where we easily got a ride. I ended up getting a room with orange slice and Tater tot and chilling with their whole gang. Was so happy to get to town and get ready for a zero.

Day 35 Bouquet Canyon to Hiker Town

Woke up with dampness in the air. It was the first time it felt humid on this trail. Was ready to see Hiker Town for the first time so that got me going. The crew left camp and started the climb. I had to slow down because my blood sugar felt low even though I had pop tarts. I really think I need to start eating more for breakfast. I pulled over on trail and took a break for a bit, drank some electrolytes, and ate some food. I felt better after 20 minutes so I got up and headed out. The walk was really nice. Ended up walking with Smokey a bit and we chatted. Super cool guy. He was telling me about being a forest fire fighter. I eventually made it to Green Valley where stretch and Rollercoaster were hanging out. This trail angel Drifter was a friend of smokies and had been waiting for him. They met on the Arizona trail, he’s also a triple crowner. Lucky for us, he wanted to feed Smokey so we got in on that too. He laid out a picnic of fruits, snacks, cold drinks, and even made us Mac n cheese! It was sooooo delicious. Such a nice guy. We chilled and said our goodbyes to hike the rest of the miles until the fire closure, which we decided to hitch around. We eventually made it to the start of fhe fire closure where Smokey showed up and his friend drifter again who again gave us cold sodas! This dude is awesome! We waited til our ride came at 4, went around the fire closure and back on trail to Hikertown. I was so ready to get there. We got there finally; the place looked like a nice shanty town with many random buildings painted to look like a tiny town. It was so cool. We rented out one of the RVs for 40 bucks total. I also ran into a bunch of folks I haven’t seen in a while. It was so nice. We decided to go to the market near hiker town. While we were there one of the tramily members changed their mind about wanting to do the LA Aqueduct at night and do it early in the morning instead. We had been talking about doing a little walking party at night with glow sticks and all that jazz for a couple weeks now so it took us all off guard. Everyone decided to do that and I was pretty bummed. Things change. Just kind of changed the feel of things. Wish something would have been said much sooner. Anyways, went back to the RV and passed out knowing we were getting up early.

Day 33 436 to Acton KOA

Today was awesome. We headed out from the horse corrales at sunrise. Everyone trickled down the ridge line. Tigger caught up and we hiked the rest of the way to the KOA together. Rocky and Hazmat caught up with us right when we arrived. Stretch and Roller coaster were already downing some cold drinks. I heard that Sherbert and the gang were there so I went to say hi to all of them. So good to see them! And felt bad ass that I caught back up to them after being off a week. When I got back to the rest of the group, they let me in on the new plan of staying at the KOA for the night. I was absolutely in. I was secretly hoping everyone would be down. So we enjoyed. Rocky and I went into town to grab beers for everyone. It was sweet to get one on one time with her. She’s bad ass. We had lunch in town, I ginormous burrito that I was proud to eat with a side of margarita in a can. We ate and we were on our way. We were able to get hitches in some really nice trucks to and from town. We showed up with the beer and hit the pool. Was an awesome day with everyone and much deserved I think. Drank a bit, enjoyed the scene and meeting new folks.

Day 32 413 to 436

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise. Sat up and realized Rocky made it all the way to our campsite. I thought I heard something move around last night, definitely thought it was an animal, but realized it was a human and tried to go back to sleep. Hit the trail at 6, it was a chilly morning, which makes for excellent hiking. Stretch and Odysseus sped up ahead. Rollercoaster and I hiked together on and off. We took a break at the Messenger Camp area which was really nice. Actually took a nap there. I love getting bigger miles in the morning and then chilling in the evening with a decent break. We met spirit and a few others there. We headed out and stopped at the North Fork Ranger Station where a bunch of folks gathered. Saw Tigger, Blue, Bonobo, Gamechanger and met Fire ball and her sister Cale. We ended up setting camp in these horse corrales. Currently laying in one all to my own cowboy camping on the PCT for the first time! I can hear the power lines above crackling in a white noise kind of way.

Day 30 347 to Wrightwood

Woke up and headed out with Stretch and Rollercoaster at 5:30 knowing there was a huge climb ahead. Stretch did his thing and Rollercoaster and I chatted and made our way up this 20 mile upward climb. It was totally fine just ALOT of up. By noon I was about over it and ready to be in Wrightwood. We took a lunch break by a log where I got even more sunburnt and was over it haha. It was a beautiful day tho. The whole walk was though the ridge line and trees once we reached higher elevation. Maria came to pick us up and we talked to her about the fire closure. She said a pct hiker received at 5000 dollar fine and that definitely validated our reason to not do it. She even said folks did not recommended the road walk because of the rock slide and blasting that was going on. So crazy to have all of this happening at once. I know other hikers who decided to do the closure and it’s disappointing. We made it to Wrightwood where Rocky and Odysseus were chilling at the lodge that we were staying at. Super cute house with books everywhere and little knick knacks. We decided to head out for Mexican and it was soooo good. I even got a peach margarita. We got back to the house and I was dead tired from hiking. The crew wanted to figure out how to get about to fire closure and resupply but I was too tired to figure that out so I went to bed at 8:30.